Ryde IOW

[wintonian]

Does anyone know the difference between getting a ticket to Ryde Hoverport (XRD) - £16.20 and one to Ryde Esplanade (RYD) - £16.90 both CDR's, prices from Winchester (WIN) with railcard?

As far as I am aware the hovercraft goes between Portsmouth and Ryde Esplanade arriving next to the station, so what is the difference in the destinations, where are they?

Edit:

Also is a WIN to Shanklin (SHN) - £18.95 CDR valid on both the Hovercraft and the Wightlink Catamaran from Portsmouth Harbour (PMH)?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Think I may have answered my own question.

According to NFM97 through fares to Island line stations are not valid via Hovertravel so the RYD fare must be the through fare using Wightlink to Ryde pier and then the train.

I assume therefore this is still the case?

 

[Greenback]

You are correct. I researched these fares before our visit to the island earlier this year.

For use of the hovercraft, you must buy the ticket to the hoverport!

 

[Matt Taylor]

Ryde Esplanade is the train station, the hoverport is adjacent but they are two different destinations. Fares to Esplanade are through fares via the Wightlink catamaran service from Portsmouth Harbour. A bus is required to connect from Portsmouth & Southsea to the Hoverport.

 

[Chris125]

If you go via the Hovercraft you have to get from Portsmouth & Southsea station to where they leave on the esplanade at Southsea - using the cat via Harbour and Pier Head is so much simpler and a lot more pleasant in bad weather.

Chris

 

[Greenback]

If you go via the Hovercraft you have to get from Portsmouth & Southsea to where they leave on the esplanade at Southsea - using the cat via Harbour and Pier Head is so much simpler.

Chris

Indeed, it is. Although Mrs Greenback wanted to try the hovercraft, we went by cat!

 

[wintonian]

I've been meaning to try the hovercraft for some time so thought I'd give it ago and do something different.

I also noticed that using the hovercraft and then getting a separate ticket to Shanklin (SHN) is 35p cheaper than using a through ticket (the bus to the hoverport is included in the rail fare):

WIN - XFD £16.20
RYD - SHN £2.40
£18.60

WIN - SHN £18.95

 

[Greenback]

I expect we will try the hovercraft at some point. We (or rather I!), didn't fancy the faf of getting the bus link to the hoverport, and the timings didn't work very well for our purposes either.

 

[wintonian]

Normally I suppose in going to the IOW I would use the Redjet from Southampton at £11.90 which IMO is rather a good price and a quicker journey too depending on which end of the island you wish to go to.

 

[prd101]

The two journey options are as follows:

1. Winchester to Portsmouth Habour by train
Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head on Wightlink Fastcat
Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin on Island Line (this stops at Ryde Esplanade by the way)

The standard Winchester to Shanklin rail tickets are valid for this entire journey


2.Winchester to Portsmouth and Southsea by train
Portsmouth and Southsea to Southsea Hoverport on the 'Hoverbus'
Southsea Hoverport to Ryde Hoverport on the Hovercraft
Ryde Hoverport to Ryde Esplanade by foot (about a 5-10 minutes walk over a footbridge)
Ryde Esplanade to Shanklin on the Island Line

A standard rail ticket from Winchester to Shanklin will not be valid on the Hovercraft. However, I believe that you can ask for a ticket to be 'Route Hovercraft'. I don't know if this changes the price, but it does mean its valid on the hovercraft instead. When you get to the Hovercraft terminal, you do have to take your through ticket to the ticket office and get a boarding pass for the hovercraft.

I do know that it's not possible to take a journey one way on the Hovercraft and the return on the FastCat (or vice versa) because I wanted to do this myself once and I couldn't on a through rail ticket.

There are some tickets that link up Island Line with the Hovercraft and they're worth looking at here: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/promotions.aspx#69767 it might be cheaper to use one of these offers and get a seperate ticket from Winchester to Portsmouth and Southsea.

Hope that helps

 

[Chris L]

Ticket to Ryde
- cue the music - good song
Over the years I've done all the car ferries
and the FastCat from Portsmouth.
But not the Hover - next time perhaps
Note that at Lymington the train may not wait for a late ferry !

 

[Oracle]

I have often wondered if there is a through ticket via the Freshwater car ferry from the Portsmouth IOW Ferry Terminal from Harbour station? If the Cats are cancelled because of bad weather they used to divert pax to the car ferries instead. It is a bit of a walk though from The Hard at Portsmouth!

 

[wibble]

I do know that it's not possible to take a journey one way on the Hovercraft and the return on the FastCat (or vice versa) because I wanted to do this myself once and I couldn't on a through rail ticket.

It's not possible - for the Hovercraft, you have to buy a ticket to 'Ryde Hoverport'. Most people are likely to use the FastCat for pure convenience.

 

[Oracle]

The advantage of the hovercraft is that it takes in theory less time to cross and it is a short hop over the footbridge to the bus stand. The Cats have to dock at the pier head then it's a trip down the pier. Also, you don't have to go all the way down the Harbour station's ramp and board via a pontoon so people with luggage seem to prefer the 'craft. Against that is that you have to get the free Hoverbus from P & S station.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Note that at Lymington the train may not wait for a late ferry !

At present the timetables do not mesh up anyway as the ferries are temporarily restricted to a 40 minute frequency pending the final approval of some legal stuff relating to the new ferries on the route.

There has been some protest because residents sem to think the new ferries do more damage than the old ones and they are not currently allowed to pass each other within the mouth of the river at Lymington.

This is a bit mad because from my own observations from on board the new ferries they create less wash than the old ones - and far less wash than the small yachts that are often in front of the ferry going in and out of Lymington!:roll:

Whilew this is ongoing we have the ridiculous situation whereby you can cross from Lymington to Yarmouth in 25 minutes but on the way back you are hove to for 15 minutes outside Lymington waiting for the outbound to pass the mouth!:roll:

Hopefully this will be resolved soon - it is my understanding that a few trials have been carried out recently ( might still be ongoing ) with the ferries passing within the mouth again, and no problems have apparently been caused.

Once the ferries are back onto a 30 minute frequency we will no longer have the crazy present situation where you currently at times have only a minute to connect with the train or can even see the train pulling out as you are about to berth.

 

[swt_passenger]

At present the timetables do not mesh up anyway as the ferries are temporarily restricted to a 40 minute frequency pending the final approval of some legal stuff relating to the new ferries on the route.

Had you seen that the branch times at Brockenhurst change in December, to match the fast SWT services better?

Now:
Arrive xx25, xx55
Depart xx29, xx59

Dec TT:
Arrive xx08, xx38
Depart xx12, xx42

 

[Peter Mugridge]

No, I hadn't - and that looks good because not only is it less waiting at Brockenhurst it also appears to allow much better connections with the ferries assuming they do get approval to revert to the ½ hourly interval ( and assuming they revert to xx.00 and xx.30 departures / xx.15 and xx.45 arrivals at Lymington - it gives plenty of time to get off the ferry and onto the train inbound while outbound - as long as the ferry doesn't leave early(!) you'll be able to get straight on; I'm working it out as a 5 minute train to ferry connection?

 

[swt_passenger]

No, I hadn't - and that looks good because not only is it less waiting at Brockenhurst it also appears to allow much better connections with the ferries assuming they do get approval to revert to the ½ hourly interval ( and assuming they revert to xx.00 and xx.30 departures / xx.15 and xx.45 arrivals at Lymington - it gives plenty of time to get off the ferry and onto the train inbound while outbound - as long as the ferry doesn't leave early(!) you'll be able to get straight on; I'm working it out as a 5 minute train to ferry connection?

I've never worked out what the notional ferry connection time is. I did hear that it would change at Lymington if they were allowed to build the planned pedestrian access for the new ferries; which was apparently stuck in the planning process. Last time I was there (early summer) pedestrians were still using the vehicle linkspan, that has to be sorted out for faster turnrounds I expect.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

As of Thursday 7th October foot passengers were still using the car ramp at Lymington...

That doesn't really affect the turnaround; to get back to a ½ hourly frequency they have to be allowed to pass the ferries by each other within the river mouth.

 

[wibble]

I've never worked out what the notional ferry connection time is. I did hear that it would change at Lymington if they were allowed to build the planned pedestrian access for the new ferries; which was apparently stuck in the planning process. Last time I was there (early summer) pedestrians were still using the vehicle linkspan, that has to be sorted out for faster turnrounds I expect.

If Wightlink have submitted the planning application, I would be very surprised if they could afford to do it with all the problems they have with Ryde Pier....